Strategic reviews of the Irish Food and Beverage Industry have consistently emphasised theudneed for food and beverage firms to improve their innovation and marketing capabilities, inudorder to maintain competitiveness in both domestic and overseas markets. In particular, theudfunctional food and beverages market has been singled out as an extremely important emergingudmarket, which Irish firms could benefit from through an increased technological and marketudorientation. Although health and wellness have been the most significant drivers of new productuddevelopment (NPD) in recent years, failure rates for new functional foods and beverages haveudbeen reportedly high. In that context, researchers in the US, UK, Denmark and Ireland haveudreported a marked divergence between NPD practices within food and beverage firms andudnormative advice for successful product development. The high reported failure rates for newudfunctional foods and beverages suggest a failure to manage customer knowledge effectively, asudwell as a lack of knowledge management between functional disciplines involved in the NPDudprocess. This research explored the concept of managing customer knowledge at the earlyudstages of the NPD process, and applied it to the development of a range of functional beverages,udthrough the use of advanced concept optimisation research techniques, which provided for audmore market-oriented approach to new food product development.udA sequential exploratory research design strategy using mixed research methods was chosen forudthis study. First, the qualitative element of this research investigated customers’ choice motivesudfor orange juice and soft drinks, and explored their attitudes and perceptions towards a range ofudnew functional beverage concepts through a combination of 15 in-depth interviews and 3 focusudgroups. Second, the quantitative element of this research consisted of 3 conjoint-basedudquestionnaires administered to 400 different customers in each study in order to model theirudpurchase preferences for chilled nutrient-enriched and probiotic orange juices, and stimulantudsoft drinks. The in-depth interviews identified the key product design attributes that influencedudcustomers’ choice motives for orange juice. The focus group discussions revealed that groupsudof customers were negative towards the addition of certain functional ingredients to naturaludfoods and beverages. K-means cluster analysis was used to quantitatively identify segments ofudcustomers with similar preferences for chilled nutrient-enriched and probiotic orange juices,udand stimulant soft drinks. Overall, advanced concept optimisation research methods facilitateudthe integration of the customer at the early stages of the NPD process, which promotes audmulti-disciplinary approach to new food product design. This research illustrated how advancedudconcept optimisation research methods could contribute towards effective and efficientudknowledge management in the new food product development process.
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